Monthly Archives: January 2021

Errands, a Vaccination, & Pork Chops

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I’ve been in a bit of a daze over the last eleven days since my last post. Some of you may think that’s normal for me, and perhaps you’re correct. I readily admit that my thoughts are easily scattered making it difficult for me to distinguish fact and fiction. Since fiction is my favorite form of reading material I tend to lean heavily in the direction. Continuing with the scattered theme, that’s kinda what this post will be about.

The other day I was summoned to Daniel & Jennifer’s home to pick up some documents that needed to be scanned and some mail Jennifer wished me to mail. Oh, and deliver her water bill to the appropriate box at the water department.

When I arrived to accomplish these things, Jennifer took my photo.

She thought she’d have it to share with her friends to show them what a goofball I am. What she didn’t know was that I wound up at her door in this manner because her Mother expressly forbid me to leave the house looking like this. I admit I was flirting with danger doing this, but it’s tough for me to back away from a challenge like that. Plus, I had strong notions about going to Walmart while I was out. On the trip, however, I re-evaluated that course of action because it was daylight and it’s my understanding that people don’t usually go to Walmart dressed like this during the day. It’s evening garb. I could be wrong about that, but figured not going was erring on the side of caution.

I’ve been talking with Cedric a lot via email lately and that’s fun. He’s stationed aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN-68), in case I haven’t mentioned that early. The ship has been deployed for almost a year now. That’s a long time at sea. With the COVID pandemic they don’t get port visits like a normal WESTPAC cruise. That, and with Iran playing games with missiles, the ship is always on alert. Just recently Iran planted one in the ocean abour a 100 miles from the Nimitz, just to say “Hi!”

Cedric is weathering the cruise nicely and is looking forward to getting back Stateside. He will be discharged not long after they return.

Today was a banner day for me. Diane drove me to the VA Hospital so I could get my 1st COVID vaccination shot. I made the appointment online and it was a very simple process. Here’s the shirt I wore…

The nurses all wanted one. Since I got it from Daniel, my son-in-law, I gave them all his email address and phone number so he could help them. Actually, that’s a lie. I didn’t do that, but it might have been fun to see how many of them would have called or emailed him. But I didn’t. Honest.

I spent a total of 25 minutes in the hospital rom the time I checked in to the auditorium until I left the building. That included filling out a form, getting the shot, then sitting in a chair for 15 minutes to see if I could do it without falling on the floor.

The nurse was great. Didn’t get her name so I’ll call her Ruby. That’s a fun name. The first thing I asked her was if the needle was really as huge as the ones the news has been showing us for weeks now. They just looked overly large, and they always showed the nurse pushing it into someone’s are really slow. Ruby and I talked about that a little bit and she assured me the needle was normal size and she would be quick about it. She even let me take a photo of her in action …

I found Diane parked pretty close to the front door and we had a nice ride home. When we got there., I fried up some pork chops for lunch …

They were really good. I marinated them in some Yoshidas teriyaki stuff that I found in the cupboard. It was brand new, never opened, and had an expiration date of October 2018. Looked good to me. Tasted good, too.

Now, many hours after the shot, my arm is really sore. I’m not sure if it’s all because of the shot, or partially because Diane had me help her scrub the little black dog. That, my friends, is a risky job. He’s pretty blind and isn’t really fond of water so his goes on high alert to protect himself and gets quite aggressive. Thankfully, I have some heavy duty leather gloves to wear during this evolution. I hold him while Diane does the scrubbing. It only took about an hour.

Now I’m going to go sit with Diane and watch news for a while.

Stay safe out there and don’t neglect to get your shot when given the opportunity.

Dazed & Confused

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I don’t know where to start with this today. So much has been happening that my mind is frizzled just a bit in an effort to make sense of events.

First: The new windows we had installed earlier in the week work great. We removed the Anderson windows that were installed in 1957, which were nice but not very good with insulation, and replaced them with brand new 2020 double pane Anderson windows. Not only is the insulation noticeably better, the windows help with dimming down outside noise. That was unexpected, but it makes sense. So, life is good. Now all I have to do is save up enough money to buy enough lumber to trim all the windows. Diane want it to be oak and my first rough estimate is I need about 325 board feet to get it done. I will measure again just to make sure, of course. Diane insists. This shouldn’t take me much more than a year and a half, give or take a few months either way.

Second: COVID has involved itself with our lives. Our granddaughter tested positive about a week ago. She recently turned 21 so I accused her, kiddingly, that she shouldn’t have been hanging out at all those bars. She wasn’t and I knew that. She knew I knew it, too. Her symptoms are mild but still it’s not anything to trifle with so we will remain concerned for now. Also in the family, our daughter, Jennifer and hubby Daniel, are fostering Daniel’s great nephew who was recently diagnosed with COVID. He’s only 8-months-old. Everyone else in the family tested negative. Diane and I don’t count because we’re old and don’t go anywhere. We’re very good sequesterers. Professional, you might say, and we’re just fine with that.

Third: How about that mini-Revolution we had yesterday. Diane and I watched the events as they unfolded and were astounded that only one person was shot. What a mess. I won’t expound on this because I avoid political issues on this forum. I have opinions, of course, but I’m pretty sure none of you want to ‘hear’ about them.

Fourth: I had an “in person” eye appointment at the VA hospital with a nice young lady named Jahaila. She’s working at the VA as an intern and will graduate in May as a real deal Doctor. I enjoyed my visit and look forward to getting my new glasses in a few weeks. I think the glasses are made in Boise, last I heard, and they have a heavy workload, hence the delay. I think the glasses are delivered to our local post office by two guys on a tandem bicycle who’s sole purpose in life is to deliver glasses for the VA. For safety, they only travel backroads, never on freeways. In towns they are allowed to ride on the sidewalks because the guy in the back is legally blind. Since he isn’t steering, that’s OK. He’s really only there to pedal, really hard, and isn’t in any way responsible for anything they run over, or into, during their delivery trips. They’ve been doing this for many years now so they must really be careful.

This is the view from the 8th floor elevator lobby of the Portland VA Hospital.

Fifth: Diane’s Mom’s light over her sink burned out so I replaced it after we got back from the VA. Putting in a new bulb didn’t fix it so I got out my trusty multi meter and didn’t learn a thing that would lead to a solution. So, I called my friend, Doug, who used to be a professional electrician for some insight. He tells me that his knowledge of codes terminates around 2010 so he limits his involvement with the understanding that anything he shares isn’t useful with regard to current codes. We kibutzed a bit and he managed to lead me in a direction that will probably allow me to resolve the problem on my own. Tomorrow will tell the tail. All I have to do is remember what he told me. It would be easier with notes but he stresses the importance of not taking notes during our visits because something could go wrong which could result in a visit from the police. I understand his concern, so there are no notes. Just my faulty memory. We’ll see how that goes.

Now it’s time for me to stop all activity for the day and go sit with Diane to make sure she doesn’t watch too many shows about renovating houses. They leave her giddy with possibilities about our home. Thankfully, we live a long way from Waco so we can’t feasibly engage Chip and Joann to fix our house. It would be nice, though. Wouldn’t it be funny if they read this and decided to come visit? I’ll be sure to let you know if that happens. Honest, I will.

Now I must stop and report that a lot of what you just read is false. I can’t help myself.

G’nite.

It’s 2021

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I know, I’m a few days late with that greeting, but it was something I had to “say”. Had it not been for all the news about COVID-19 and Trump’s disappointment with the voting public and those who count votes, I would have done this sooner. Maybe even on time. I was, however, afraid that I would be swayed by the news and relate something I would later regret.

Having said that, I’ll probably share something I will regret anyway. It seems to be a “thing” with me.

We survived both Christmas and New Years’ celebrations with no ill effects. Didn’t attend any parties so have no concerns about coming down with COVID-19. Both Diane and I are perfectly happy just sitting in our recliners and watching one Hallmark movie after another. We still have about 30 Hallmark Christmas movies to watch before we can resume regular programing, whatever that might be. We watch a lot of HGTV programs of people renovating homes, turning some pretty rugged houses into things of beauty. Those programs used to concern me because I feared I might have to compete with those people by doing something fabulous with our home, but Diane’s apparently OK with little tasks as long as she doesn’t have to remind me to do them more than 6-7 times.

My most current projects along those lines is in the bathroom. The toilet leaked a bit into the basement (my shop area) causing a bit of a problem so Jeff and I got busy with a plan to fix it. It was evident that the wax ring was compromised so we quit using it, pulled the toilet up, and put it in the shower. Not an optimal place for a toilet, but it got it out of the way. Doing this meant the shower wasn’t available until the toilet was back in place.

Once the toilet was removed we learned that the underlayment would have to be replaced as it was also compromised. That’s code for the underlayment was waterlogged and coming apart in places. So, we ripped it out and burned it. Jeff visited the lumber yard and brought home some replacement wood which we cut to fit, then cut it in half so we could get it through the door. Putting it together was easy and it’s perfectly flush.once it was down I stuck a new wax ring to the bottom of the toilet and put the toilet back in position and bolted it down to give it a test flush.

Heather was in the basement when I flushed it and I figured from her first yell that the wax ring wasn’t tall enough. I got a little more water in the basement but it was OK. Just cleaned things out a little because it was uncontaminated water. I wasn’t too concerned about the water in the basement but Heather got pretty excited about it. In the Navy I always called events like that a “Sphincter Check”. Not know the cause of the concern makes a person tighten up every sphincter they own. It’s a good test to make sure they all work. Her’s did fine.

Jeff got us a waxless ring that worked just great. It stuck up above the floor enough to make contact with the toilet and it doesn’t leak even one drop. Nifty thing, that waxless ring is.

Knowing it wasn’t going to leak put us in a position to cut the piece of linoleum Diane bought to replace the piece we removed. The new piece had to be a single piece, not peal and stick because in my experience those things never stray together. They always shrink away from each other leaving lots of cracks for dirt to collect.

As luck would have it, I had a gallon of linoleum adhesive in the basement that had never been opened. We bought it 7-8 years ago for another linoleum project we did. Apparently we bought too much which proved to be OK since we didn’t have to go to Home Depot, or Lowe’s for more. It was perfectly OK. Turns out if you get it on hairy parts of your body, and don’t wash it right away, it’s takes a long time to go away. And, it’s very sticky to the point where you can easily pick up a hammer if you mistakenly lay your arm across it not knowing the part of your arm you rarely look at has been contaminated. Now, you don’t have to get it on hairy body parts to do the hammer trick, but the hair just makes it more interesting to get it off. Taking a shower doesn’t do it. I had it all over my arms and was concerned about messing up the bed when it came time to use it. The solution was for me to put on a long-sleeved shirt and have Diane compress the material all around my forearms so it stuck to the adhesive. The next morning I just wore that shirt to work in, dreading the entire day knowing that I’d have to remove it at some point. It’s quite a distraction.

My concern was not validated by a struggle to remove the shirt as it came off pretty easy and I was able to scrub off what was left on my arms using a very stiff brush doused in Dawn dish soap.

The toilet has been in use, without mishap, for about a week. I still need to install the baseboard trim but I’m stalling on that until I get my new(ly refurbished) miter saw from China. I have a Craftsman miter saw that might work but I only have just the right amount of baseboard and don’t want to wreck it with that saw. I cannot tighten the base in place to prevent a wandering blade and the part I need is no longer available for purchase. I tried fixing it with some of that floor adhesive and it may have worked but I’m still hesitant to commit. It’s an old saw, so I’ll wait for the replacement.

This morning the Renewal by Anderson installers showed up with nine new windows for us. That’s another reason I need the new saw because I committed to install all the interior trim for those windows. I just learned about that. It’s OK because I was in need of a serious challenge at this stage in my life. Should be fun.

Now I’m going to stop but I’ll leave you with another photo of Mt. Hood. Took it yesterday. It never gets old.

Cheers